Company/Employer: International Hearing Society

Title: Editor

Career:

I am the editor of the The Hearing Professional, which is a members-only magazine for a locally-based nonprofit association, the International Hearing Society. I absolutely love the whole process of design, writing, editing, collaborating, interviewing, and ghostwriting for the Society and this quarterly members-only magazine. I get to interview the top echelon of our membership —successful professionals who have a passion for helping other people hear better — and translate their experiences into engaging articles, speeches, press releases, sales letters, and the like. In addition to editing and writing content, I also write speeches for our leadership team.

Education:

I received my Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Wayne State University.

Professional Claim to Fame:

My expertise lies in sharing people’s stories in print and in literary events. I’ve worked in publishing all my life — on the editing / writing side AND in the sales sector. Before my time at IHS, I was a national sales leader for Scholastic Book Fairs. My true passion is getting people excited about great literature and to that end, I’ve been working on a truly non-profit project for the last fifteen years: my monthly eclectic book club, run by my sister and me every third Friday for our girlfriends. We create an event each month to delight our friends with food, games, décor, and wine that relates to our chosen book—and we carve time to talk about the book as well! This has poured into a book I am writing on book clubs and a book club blog that is under construction.

 AWC focus:

With the busy-ness of life and investing all my time into my family, friends, church, and work, there was little time left to spend on developing myself professionally with an association. Last summer, however, because of the virtual platform, I attended the Society of Association Executives through work. The camaraderie I experienced there, inspired me to seek out an association more suited to my field and voila—the Association for Women in Communications came on my radar through the AWC Instagram account. I was attracted to the inspiring posts and was delighted to discover that there was a Detroit chapter. So, over the Christmas holidays, I decided to take the plunge and sign up. I look forward to meeting other women in the field, sharpening my skills as a communicator, and seeing where I can fit in with this group of accomplished women.

Family:

I live in Canton, Michigan, with my husband, Harrie. We have three girls who recently all graduated from universities. 

General Interests:

In addition to scouring the shelves for great reads, I am an avid Bible reader, wine and gin enthusiast, gardener, and rock hound (I found my first agate this summer!). My husband and I are world travelers and recently launched a side-hustle of making charcuterie boards (wood working), when our international wings were clipped during the pandemic: Protea and Thistle Woodshop.

Causes:

Literacy, The Bible, and helping other women discover their unique gifts and share them with the world.